The Social Gospel, the Black Church Tradition, and Senator Obama

Three years ago today (April 3 2008) Anthony Pinn published an essay at the height of the debate surrounding Rev. Jeremiah Wright, pastor of Trinity Church in Chicago whose church Barack Obama attended at the time.   This is a good time to reflect  back on that period.    


Conservatives were incensed at the language Rev. Wright employed in the pulpit to stir his congregation to action to change the ills of society from an African-American perspective.   Lost in the heated accusations and name calling was the central theme of the “Social Justice” message which drew Obama to Trinity Church.  Not much has been said or written about the Social Gospel Movement in the Black Church tradition, but Anthony Pinn’s essay raises some interesting points for discussion.


Excerpts from an April 3 2008 essay by Anthony B Pinn entitled 
Getting Wright Wrong: Preaching Is Not Policy

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/163/getting_wright_wrong:_preaching_is_not_policy

There is no doubt that our country has known its share of political tension wed to religious fervor. From the first movement of Europeans across the great ocean, to the destruction of indigenous cultures and the enslavement of Africans, to our discomfort with the residue of such situations, our sociopolitical, economic and cultural geography has been mapped in relationship to our religious leanings and assumptions. From then until now, religious commitment and religious informed political opinions have wrestled with the pressing issues of the day

…….Popular imagination and public debate in recent weeks, surrounding Sen. Obama’s pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, has highlighted the manner in which the Black Church Tradition plays into religious engagement of political concerns in the United States. I do not lament this debate, but I do regret the rather limited scope of the conversation, the way in which what is really a long and robust tradition of critique and celebration of the United States in black churches has been reduced to a few inflammatory sound bites.

Beginning with the emergence of the spirituals, people of African descent applied scriptural lessons to their daily concerns and social predicament. Through a merging of scriptural moral and ethical principles drawn from biblical characters like Moses and Daniel with their experience of oppression, they expressed their hope for a better life. This reading of life through the Bible allowed slaves to sing “Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel, and why not everyone?” and provided the framework and language for struggle against oppressive circumstances writ large. As the Christian thought and practice of enslaved Africans grew into visible churches, this evaluation of life arrangements through the insights and principles of scripture continued.

This mode of expression included not just song but the black sermonic style. From the First Great Awakening in the 1730s on, enslaved Africans and free Africans preached the word of God in revivals, camp meetings, and pulpits. In some cases they gave these sermons from pulpits within their own churches and, as of the 1800s, within local congregations associated with black denominations. From pulpits across the land ministers spoke to the pressing issues of the day in light of the unchanging truths of the gospel message.

Some churches, of course, moved in a direction that is commonly called an “other-worldly” orientation through which the priority in preaching and practice revolved around personal salvation and little sustained attention was given to social activism—a posture against the world. Others, however, representing the more celebrated approach, advanced a “this-worldly” orientation, using the preached moment as an opportunity to advance life options that diminished racism. What they preached was the social gospel: the scripture-based assumption that Christian commitment requires social activism.

…………….  What of the better than sixty outreach ministries found at Trinity Church? Do they speak to hopelessness, defeatism, “un-American” attitudes? What do they tell us about Rev. Wright’s take on the gospel message, his commitment to the improvement of life in the United States? His deep disappointment with the failures of the United States is connected to a profound hopefulness that the moral and ethical principles that have served to frame our country can be enlivened, and both are presented in passionate language not dissimilar from that used by Hebrew Bible prophets such as the reverend’s namesake, Jeremiah. Rev. Wright’s sense of ministry, his read of the Bible, when placed in context extends beyond a few questionable comments, speaks to the social gospel representing the best of the Christian Tradition in the United States, and the earmark of the Black Church Tradition.

The essay then goes on to discuss (then Senator) Barack  Obama and his affiliation with Trinity Church

“However, he embraces Trinity Church’s commitment to the social gospel, and he does so in a robust manner. It isn’t clear to me that Senator Obama is an advocate of Black Liberation Theology (as Rev. Wright is), as opposed to a more general embrace of liberal religion’s emphasis on active faith. His theological perspective seems to echo 

• the sensitivity and the deep yearning for meaning and community of Howard Thurman, 
• the religious realism of Reinhold Niebhur, 
• the religious engagement of sociopolitical life of Benjamin Mays 
• and the “beloved community” longed for by Martin Luther King Jr. 

And, unlike many African-American ministers and professional writers of black theology, Senator Obama attempts to speak to an appreciation for religious pluralism in the United States, the merit of difference, and a shared moral and ethical standard "




The question of the role of the Social Gospel in the Black Church tradition is a topic which deserves further study and discussion.   Let's return to the subject in the near future.